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Operation NEXT

Operation NEXT will allow the City of Los Angeles (Los Angeles) to develop a new source of advanced purified water for beneficial reuse in order to help Los Angeles achieve long-term sustainability goals.

What Is Operation NEXT?

Operation NEXT is a new water supply initiative being developed by LADWP in partnership with LA Sanitation and Environment (LASAN) that aims to improve the overall water supply resiliency and reliability for Los Angeles. Operation NEXT will allow the City of Los Angeles (Los Angeles) to develop a new source of advanced purified water for beneficial reuse in order to help Los Angeles achieve long-term sustainability goals.

The Program aims to maximize the supply of advanced purified recycled water from the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant to replenish the city’s groundwater basins via an Indirect Potable Reuse (IPR) strategy. Concurrently, LADWP is working with regulators to allow integrating purified recycled water with the drinking water system. The process, known as direct potable reuse (DPR), would further expand the use of purified recycled water from Hyperion and other City water reclamation plants as a supplemental water source.

Program Benefits

  • Increase local water supplies to offset purchased imported water.
  • Build a resilient storage supply in local groundwater basins.
  • Mitigate potential interruptions to our water supply due to earthquakes, climate change, and drought. 

Program Components

Through Hyperion 2025, LASAN plans to retrofit and modernize the existing secondary treatment process at the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant (HWRP) to include membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology. Secondary effluent from HWRP will serve as source water for the advanced water purification facility (AWPF) as part of the Operation NEXT Program. Learn more.

Conveyance and Storage: Working with the Water Replenishment District of Southern California (WRD) and the Upper Los Angeles River Area Watermaster, LADWP will determine optimal locations to convey purified recycled water from Hyperion into the underlying aquifers within the West Coast, Central, and San Fernando Groundwater Basins.

LADWP is also working with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) to potentially convey purified recycled water to MWD’s Regional Recycled Water Program Backbone System and the Jensen Water Filtration Plant. These connections would add operational flexibility and create a truly regional recycled water system.

Project Timeline (Completion dates)

The proposed schedule reflects a conceptual level estimate and its subject to change based on resources and funding limitations. The Program is currently in the Conceptual Planning Phase.

Operation NEXT Program Schedule: Title - Program Management. Timeline start 2018 ending 2058. Pre-Planning 2018 to 2024 fourth quarter.

*PEIR: Preliminary Environmental Information Report
*MWD: Metropolitan Water District
*PWSC: Pure Water Southern California Program

Ongoing Efforts

  • LADWP is developing an “Operation NEXT Master Plan” scheduled to be completed by Spring 2024.
  • LADWP and LASAN are preparing a Programmatic EIR for Operation NEXT, including Hyperion 2035 scheduled to be completed by late 2024.
  • LADWP and WRD recently completed developing a “Joint Los Angeles Basin Replenishment and Extraction Master Plan” to evaluate the best groundwater locations for injecting and extracting Hyperion purified recycled water. The findings from this study will feed into the development of the Operation NEXT Master Plan efforts currently underway.
  • LADWP and LASAN are collaborating on the Hyperion Advanced Water Purification Facility (AWPF), a 1.5 MGD project that will provide advanced-treated recycled water to nearby Los Angeles International Airport for heating, cooling, and toilet flushing.
  • LADWP is working with West Basin on a 1 MGD Hyperion Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) Pilot Facility. This project will compare three MBR systems side-by-side and provide data for regulatory approval. Scheduled for completion in 2023.

Environmental Review

Please visit the Operation NEXT CEQA website for documents and updates related to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) compliance.

Community Outreach

LADWP is engaged in development of a robust stakeholder communication and outreach plan. Since early 2019, LADWP has worked with partner agencies, community groups, elected officials, environmental leaders, Neighborhood Councils and other stakeholders on creating a high level of collaboration and cooperation for Operation NEXT. Two key outreach components include the development of the Programmatic Environmental Impact Report and the development of the Operation NEXT Master Plan.

Environmental related outreach has been ongoing since early 2021 and is estimated for completion in 2024. The Operation NEXT Master Plan development started in 2021 and is estimated for completion in Spring of 2024, with support and feedback from community stakeholders and technical advisors.

 

Partners

Documents